Mideast Peace

In the fall of 1991, I was an undergraduate student at Georgetown University, following the coverage of the Madrid peace conference. In the Spanish capital, the United States had managed to gather Arabs and Israelis around a table with the aim of ending what was then half a century of war and desperation, whose first victims were the people of the region, including the people of my country, Lebanon. As I prepared to make my first official visit to Washington as prime minister of Lebanon, I couldn't help but reflect on the price the entire word has paid since the Madrid conference failed to bring peace to the Middle East and justice to the Palestinians.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the Obama administration would continue to pursue an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal despite the failure of its central strategy, and it intends to do so by pushing hard on both sides. Clinton, facing growing skepticism about the administration's ability to make progress toward peace, said the United States would "push the parties to grapple with the core issues. " "The United States will not be a passive participant," she told Israeli and Palestinian officials and others gathered at the annual Saban Forum in Washington.